ORIGINAL: eddieC
But hey I only have a little over 15,000 hours of flight time. What would I know. [img][/img]
That makes two of us.
I'll muddy the waters. Ailerons change the camber of the wing which, when carried beyond a certain point, does spoil lift. I will agree the AOA changes also, so they go hand-in-hand.
I flew a Robertson STOL (short take-off and landing) Cessna 421 many years ago (thing nearly killed us one day, but that's another story), which had flaperons (!) and Fowler flaps. Ailerons were longer, thinner, and drooped with the first 5-degrees of flap. The first flap movement went straight aft about 20'' and, when coupled with the drooped ailerons, added area (flaps) to the wing, and changed the camber (ailerons).
I think this horse is startin' to whinny (we've about beat it to death!). [8D]
Thank-you for finally pointing out some basic aerodynamics for our modeling friends.
You guy's surely have hear the old saying "Left Thumb Dumb".
This whole discussion has not highlighted the point that airplanes perform around three axis's
not two. A coordinated turn requires all three inputs. The down aileron does extend the upper camber of the
wing, (thats what makes the wing roll to begin with). The rudder input rotates the nose through direction of the
turn assisting the Aileron. The elevator is used to maintain Alt. as the lift coeffiecent has been reduced.
Lets not forget that all control surfaces work on Bernuli's principle. As speed increases, pressure decreases.
If you think about a molecule of air as a ball, as it hits the leading edge it splits. The half that's traveling around
the upper surface of the wing has to go faster for the two halves to reach the trailing edge at the same time.
Therefore you have less pressure on the upper surface. All control surfaces work as a function of pressure, not
from deflecting the air flow.